When Kanu stalwarts called Njonjo a traitor

By KENNETH KWAMA

KENYA: A few months after the failed 1982 coup, a melodious Christian song, Judas Msaliti (Judas the traitor), began playing on the national broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), out of the blue.

Around the same time, a chorus emerged of politicians calling one of their own a traitor. KBC was then the ruling party’s mouthpiece and it seemed the four-verse song was a warning, and in much bigger sense, a prelude to the fall of the then powerful Constitutional Affairs minister Charles Njonjo.

On April 22, 2007, The Standard carried a story titled Kenya: Nyayo patriotic songs — great lyrics with subtle messages in which it reminded readers about the use of songs during the Kanu days.

“To the non-political rally goers and gullible KBC listeners, it was just a beautiful religious song. The first verse went: Siku ile ya kwanza Yesu kasulubiwa, alikuwa ameketi na wafuasi wake, kati yao hawakuweza kumtambua atakaye msaliti.

(On the day Jesus was betrayed, he was sitting with his disciples. Among them, they could not tell who would betray him),” stated the paper.

Hit airwaves

In her book, The Rise of a Party State in Kenya: From Harambee to Nyayo, Jennifer Widner of the University of California, Berkeley, relates the Judas Msaliti song directly to the plot to bring down Njonjo after the coup.

As this song began to hit the airwaves, Kanu’s then diehards like the late Elijah Mwangale and Martin Shikuku began to attack Njonjo.

The attacks festered for some time and true to the political culture during the post-1982 coup days, the Kanu men ravenously attacked, but never named anybody.

They only gave telling clues about the traitor: an MP who wore a three-piece suit and a flower in his lapel, a description that fitted Njonjo to the brim.

Those who know the former minister well remember his black and white-striped three-piece suits, which he still dons. In fact, that design and colour became so characteristic that people started referring to it as the Njonjo suit.

In December 1982, a group of MPs from Western Province spearheaded an attack on the former Constitutional Affairs minister in Parliament, taking him head-on on a series of issues. In the meantime, Judas Msaliti song had become even more popular and politicians joined the fray talking of a traitor.

It was not unusual for the entire song to be repeated at a rally or a verse to be replayed again on KBC.

“On June 30, 1983, as the Judas Msaliti song played on, Shikuku took on senior ministers, Stanley Oloitiptip, Joseph Kamotho, Charles Rubia, GG Kariuki and Robert Matano.

Most of these ministers were seen as Njonjo’s allies. Fred Omido then fired another salvo at Njonjo and Lawrence Sifuna closed it with the first open request that Njonjo be expelled from Parliament,” wrote The Standard.

Dr Mukasa Mango, from then Busia East, suggested that expulsion from Cabinet was not enough. He demanded that Njonjo be charged with treason.